There's a reason why I can't stomach most reality shows: I tend to empathize too much with those poor young saplings. I don't like seeing starry-eyed, albeit disillusioned, middle class Americans get laughed at by a half-conscious Paula Abdul. Something about that seems inherently wrong. I didn't even like it when Ashton Kutcher had his cronies spray sewer water on Ja Rule's Escalade for Punk'd. Okay, maybe just a little bit.
MTV's latest reality show, Rock the Cradle, pits the grown sons and daughters of various performers against each other in an Idol-esque competition to see if they share their parents' musical chops. To get us amped for the show, the network held a nationwide contest to find the parent-child duo who could rock the hardest playing - What else? Rock Band. Parent-child duos from Cleveland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Annapolis and New York came together in New York City's Times Square to compete for the grand prize of $10,000. And while that's a considerable amount of money, the young musicians on Rock Cradle lead us to believe that they have a lot more at stake.
All of the contestants on the show are the grown sons and daughters of notable musicians who have battled drug addictions, bankruptcy, or were just never around. The songs they chose to perform on the show's premiere reflects the relationship they have with their famous parent. Basically, the show has built-in drama. Besides a group a judges scoring the kids, their parents are also on-hand to provide a final comment or criticism - and to tug at our collective heartstrings just a little bit more.
